Introduction

Abstract

The present text addresses theoretical and practical concerns that are relevant for large-scale investigations of bilingual development. It discusses the necessity of approaches that use a variety of elicitation methods and assess different populations. Such investigations can help resolve some of the most important current questions and controversies in the field of bilingualism, but they come with a number of practical and methodological challenges. We will set out some of these issues as we have encountered them in an investigation of bilingual development which was conducted over two continents and four countries, comprised a variety of elicitation techniques, from neuroimaging experiments to behavioral tasks and investigated populations from varied language backgrounds. This documentation of our approach is intended to help researchers who face similar challenges.